Policy in Action 19 November 2024
There is no doubt that the provision of Early Years and School Age Care is an election issue and over the past few weeks, political parties have been releasing their policies in the hope that it will land with the electorate. Here, we take a closer look at the main proposals. Each day, politicians are […] The post Policy in Action 19 November 2024 appeared first on Early Childhood Ireland.
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There is no doubt that the provision of Early Years and School Age Care is an election issue and over the past few weeks, political parties have been releasing their policies in the hope that it will land with the electorate. Here, we take a closer look at the main proposals.
Each day, politicians are hearing about the cost of fees, Early Years and School Age Care waiting lists and staff shortages. There are several areas around the country where the number of Early Years and School Age Care places available cannot meet demand and this is impacting on parents’ working arrangements, careers and incomes. It is also affecting children’s access to, and participation in, high-quality Early Years and School Age Care provision, which is a vital foundation for lifelong learning and child wellbeing. Staffing is a significant challenge for settings, many of whom have a 24 per cent staff turnover. Let’s take a look at how the Parties intend to address these issues.
Public model
While the Social Democrats, Labour and the Greens have stated that they are in favour of the State directly providing Early Years and School Age Care, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are offering a mix of state-led or state-owned facilities alongside private Early Years and School Age Care provision.
Fees
All of the main political Parties have offered a cap on fees.
| Party | Fee cap |
| Fianna Fáil
|
Reduce parents’ fees to €200 per month.
Establish a National Childcare Price Register to ensure transparency in fees for parents. |
| Fine Gael
|
Limit childcare costs to €200 per month per child, or €600 for a family with more than 3 children |
| Green Party
|
Families will be charged no more than €200 per child, per month |
| Labour | Cap costs at €200 per child per month |
| Sinn Féin
|
Give all parents access to childcare at €10 (or €200 per month) a day per child. |
| Social Democrats | Cap Fees at €250 per child per month |
Staff pay and conditions
| Party | Staff pay and conditions |
| Fianna Fáil | Continue to increase pay for childminders and early years educators through the Employment Regulation Order instrument.
Introduce an “Earn and Learn” apprenticeship model enabling childcare staff to gain qualifications and advance their careers while remaining in the workforce. |
| Fine Gael | Review and establish fair, progressive wages for childcare workers in public services and support pay increases across the sector to attract and retain talent.
Remove barriers in education and training for early years educators to broaden access to the profession. |
| Green Party | Ensuring that early years professionals are valued and recognised for their extraordinary work through a process to increase pay and improve working conditions. |
| Labour | Provide professional pay to early years’ educators.
Labour will guarantee a minimum €15 per hour rate for educators with additional increases across other grades. |
| Sinn Féin | Sinn Féin would provide public funding to pay for an increase to the hourly wage of childcare workers of €1.50 initially.
Initiate a review into the current pathways into Early Years to ensure those with a passion for Early Years and who work well with children are not locked out of the sector due to barriers to education. |
| Social Democrats | Develop a Pay Grade and Benefits system for public sector early years employees.
Take measures to ensure a highly skilled and fairly remunerated Early Years and School Age Care workforce. |
Capacity
| Party | Capacity |
| Fianna Fáil | Bolster the new unit within the Department of Children to forward plan on childcare needs and undertake a national audit to identify blackspots where there are insufficient childcare places for the local population.
Capital investment to build or purchase state-owned facilities. Provide more childcare on school sites. Make it easier for childminders to register with Tusla. |
| Fine Gael | 30,000 new early learning places in public early learning and school aged care services by 2030
Increase childcare capacity by creating thousands of additional places in 100 State-led services each year. An opt-in for private and community providers where appropriate. |
| Green Party | No specific mention |
| Labour | Provide 6,000 new public childcare places a year (for five years) across an average of 100 new services with an average of 11 staff per service, building this up every year.
Map where demand is highest nationwide, and where there is a shortage of places. Guarantee equal access and prioritise the opening of new services in areas with a shortage of places. Build bespoke new buildings for a public system. Co-location of public childcare settings and after school facilities. Develop a ‘childcare in situ’ scheme for existing services to join the public system. |
| Sinn Féin | Expand capacity by addressing the crisis in recruitment and retention, extending supports to childminders, increasing and reviewing Core Funding, as well as through promotion of the social enterprise model and extension of benefits for parents to cover the first year of a child’s life. |
| Social Democrats | Conduct an Audit of Existing Services, and Areas of Significant Unmet Need.
80 additional settings each year, up to 2030. Establish a forward planning unit in the Department of Children. Invest significant capital spending to build additional settings in the areas most in need, including on the grounds of other educational campuses. |
Childminders
| Party | Childminders |
| Fianna Fáil | Make it easier for childminders to register with Tusla and help them in entering the contract for the National Childcare subsidy scheme.
Establish a professional register for childminders and early years educators. This will help reduce the administrative burden on providers and reflects the professionalisation of the sector |
| Fine Gael | Extend the National Childcare Scheme to cover childminders working in families’ homes, with sensible regulations that fit home-based care.
Funding grants that help childminders improve safety and quality through essential toys, equipment, and technology. Guide childminders through the registration process and expand access to local training opportunities. |
| Green Party | No specific mention |
| Labour | No specific mention |
| Sinn Féin | Sinn Féin proposes to make childminders eligible for delivery of its €10 per day fee proposal
Work with stakeholders in the sector, including the Regulator Tusla, to ensure the registration process for childminders is improved and accelerated, while ensuring the right balance between practicality and health and safety of children is struck. |
| Social Democrats | Ensure parents using registered childminders can continue accessing financial supports from the National Childcare Scheme. |
Core Funding
| Party | Core Funding |
| Fianna Fáil | Increase Core Funding to services provided their fees are under the fee cap, that they maintain fee freezes, and that they pay staff in line with the Employment Regulation Orders. |
| Fine Gael | Review and increase Core Funding to ensure it meets providers’ needs and reduce their administrative workload. |
| Green Party | No specific mention |
| Labour | Ringfence Core Funding to guarantee a minimum €15 rate for educators, with additional increases across other grades. |
| Sinn Féin | Conduct a review of Core Funding. |
| Social Democrats | Maintain Core Funding to help improve staff pay and working conditions for those working in the private sector. |
Family Leave
| Party | Family Leave |
| Fianna Fáil | Extend Parent’s Leave and Benefit from 9 to 12 weeks.
Extend the duration of Parent’s Leave and Benefit to allow parents to take leave and access benefits for up to five years following the birth or adoption of a child. |
| Fine Gael | Extend paid family leave and introduce Pay-Related Parents Benefit modelled on the new Pay-Related Jobseekers Benefit and seek to extend this to other forms of leave over time.
We will introduce leave for parents through surrogacy. |
| Green Party | Extend paternity leave and increase flexibility, including by incorporating the circumstances of premature babies and providing additional financial support, where necessary, for the families of premature babies.
Increase the level of paid parental leave to allow men to share with women in caring for children or relatives and running homes. Create family friendly policies within all structures of local government to provide access to maternity and paternity leave, affordable childcare and breastfeeding facilities to all participants. |
| Labour | Labour will ensure new parents can take a year of combined paid leave and extend it further by expanding parents’ benefits over time in line with existing parental leave entitlements. |
| Sinn Féin | Invest an additional €100 million approx. in order to ensure that 52 weeks of leave is covered so that children can be with a parent for the first year of their life. |
| Social Democrats | No specific mention. |
Early Childhood Ireland’s reaction
Early Childhood Ireland welcomes the proposals from several political manifestos that recognise the value and professionalism of Early Years and School Age Care educators with some promising a review of their pay and conditions.
Whichever Parties form the next government, they will need to not only reduce fees for parents but deliver other measures which bring Ireland to a much better place in overall public investment.
Early Childhood Ireland is calling on the next government to move closer to a publicly funded model, and to elevate the status of Early Years and School Age Care to that of Primary education, by setting a date by which graduates will be brought within public sector pay and conditions, in line with teachers.
Without an adequately compensated professional Early Years and School Age Care workforce, policy makers will not be able to implement any capacity or improved quality measures.
While we are prioritising the workforce, Early Childhood Ireland will need to see commitments in the Programme of Government which build on the work of the outgoing government. We will be urging the adoption of our ‘4 Asks for Children’ as we believe that they contain the essential elements for an equitable, accessible of Early Years and School Age Care system.
Meanwhile, we have already started to build on the momentum towards better pay and conditions for Early Years and School Age Care staff during and after the general election. We are delivering a broad programme of media work, especially at local level and we are engaging proactively with candidates from all Parties and none. It is essential that Early Years and School Age Care is a significant plank in the next Programme for Government.
If you would like to get in touch, or if you have any questions or queries about our work, please contact policy@earlychildhoodireland.ie
The post Policy in Action 19 November 2024 appeared first on Early Childhood Ireland.
